Unapproachable East.pdf - The Forgotten Realms

claim his portion against the interest of those who supported
the idea from the beginning.
The Priador extends along Thay’s southern coast, from the
River Lapendrar all the way east to the River Thazarim. Its
northern boundary is the Lapendrar and the First Escarpment.
Along with the Alaor and Surthay in the distant north,
the Priador is not actually part of the Plateau of Thay. Besides
Bezantur, the tharch holds two other major settlements. Thasselen
lies on the shore seventy miles west of Bezantur. Another
hundred miles or so farther in that direction squats the
port city of Murbant. Both of these ports are closer to the Sea
of Fallen Stars—and therefore the bulk of Faerûn—than
Bezantur, but they are poor sisters to the tharch’s capital.
Bezantur is one of the largest and wealthiest cities in eastern
Faerûn, and its port is thronged with the ships of a dozen
lands at all times.
The High Road, one of the nation’s two major roads, starts
in Bezantur. From there, it climbs the First Escarpment,
passes through Tyraturos, and ends in Eltabbar. Some of the
locals call this road the Slave Way, for large numbers of slaves
are driven north along it to the markets of Eltabbar.
Unlike most of Thay, much of the Priador is still wild. In
fact, a number of preserves throughout the region permit
monsters to roam freely. These creatures are kept on hand for
use in the Red Wizards’ unethical experiments. Travelers accosted
by the creatures are allowed to defend themselves, but
more than one monster-slayer has discovered that damaging
a zulkir’s property brings more pain than claws and teeth.
Pyarados
The tharch of Pyarados runs between the eastern edge of Lake
Thaylambar and the Sunrise Mountains, right to the lower
portion of the River Thazarim and the southern edge of the
First Escarpment. The tharch doesn’t quite reach the High
Road to the west, which is part of Tyraturos. The ruler of this
tharch is Nymia Focar (CE female human Ftr9). Pyrados
hasn’t benefited directly from the influx of wealth brought
about by the zulkirs’ new trade policy, but Focar has been
savvy enough to make herself rich through her own initiatives.
She is more forgiving of the presence of foreign adventurers
than most of her peers, granting them free rein to
explore those portions of the Sunrise Mountains that lie
within her tharch. The only catch is that the shops in Pyarados
charge foreigners triple the normal prices and pass the
bulk of the profits back to the tharchion.
In addition to monster dens and old ruins, this part of the
Sunrise Mountains harbors all sorts of mineral wealth. Focar
can’t be bothered with owning or operating mines herself, so
she charges a stiff tax on those who do. Any who try to cheat
her or refuse to pay find their claims sold out from under
them to people more willing to go along with Focar’s demands.
There is only one major city here—Pyarados, after which
the tharch is named. Situated on the west bank of the River
Thazarim, this is where the Eastern Way ends, just shy of the
Surague Escarpment. Two well-worn tracks lead out of city.
One follows the edges of the Surague Escarpment and the edge
THAY
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of Lake Thaylambar up to the city of Eltabbar. The other is
on the east side of the River Thazarim, and it leads south
through the tharch of Thazalhar into Mulhorand, eventually
winding up in either Sultim or Rauthil, depending on which
fork one follows.
THE PASS OF THAZAR
A short distance north and east of the city of Pyarados is the
Pass of Thazar, one of only two ways (Daggertooth Pass is the
other) across the Sunrise Mountains into Thay. The pass
climbs along the vale of the Thazarim River. At the top of
the valley, a difficult road of switchbacks and precipitous
drops snakes under the crest of the mountains for about ten
miles before dropping into the upper vale of the Copper River,
a tributary of the Clearflow. A great stone wall raised centuries
ago guards the top of the pass.
The Thazar is lower and easier than the Daggertooth, but
it is not as strategically important. Most travelers to Mulhorand
or Murghôm simply take the road south from Pyarados
to Rauthil. In the ancient wars against Mulhorand, the
Pass of Thazar was much more important, as it offered an
eastern approach to Thay, but little of consequence has happened
here in a long time.
SURAGUE ESCARPMENT
Like the First and Second Escarpments, the Surague is a long
line of steeply layered precipices climbing from the Plateau of
Thay toward the Sunrise Mountains. It is much more broken
and rugged than the other escarpments, sometimes vanishing
entirely for dozens of miles before reappearing. Most of the
Surague (the land above the escarpment) is at an elevation of
about 6,000 to 7,000 feet and quickly merges with the steep
foothills and sheer peaks of the Sunrise range.
The Thayans maintain few watchposts or fortresses along
this frontier, since the Sunrises are virtually impassable to any
but skilled mountaineers who know where they’re going. Slaves
hoping to escape into the mountains usually meet a quick end
from the arduous conditions or the hungry monsters that
plague the high vales. A few ragged bands of escaped slaves eke
out a hardscrabble existence in the lower slopes, fleeing the approach
of Thayan forces and raiding down onto the plateau
when they dare. From time to time Thayan nobles organize
expeditions to hunt these wretches for sport.
Sunrise Mountains
The Sunrise Mountains, which many consider to mark the
eastern end of Faerûn proper, run all the way from the
center of Rashemen to just past the southeastern border of
Thay. They form the entirety of Thay’s eastern border, towering
almost 15,000 feet above sea level. To get to the Thayan
portion of the Sunrise Mountains, a traveler must first tackle
the Surague Escarpment. Few find even this to be worthwhile,
as the Sunrises themselves are virtually impassable to